CLI for exploring and managing Markdown knowledge bases with YAML frontmatter
Hyalo is a fast command-line tool for searching, filtering, and mutating collections of Markdown files with YAML frontmatter. It supports property queries, tag filtering, regex search, wikilink tracking, and bulk metadata updates. Compatible with Obsidian vaults, Zettelkasten systems, and any structured Markdown documentation.
Highlights
hyalo 0.25.0 turns ranked search into a small query language, adds section-level hits, facets and an incremental index, and closes the findings of two dogfood rounds on MDN, GitHub Docs and two Obsidian vaults.
Search
- find PATTERN has a grammar: implicit AND, OR (binds tighter), "phrase"~N, prefix*, -term, ( ) groups. hyalo find --help opens with a ten-line FIND 101.
- --granularity section returns the paragraph, not the file; --facet tags|property:K|type|dir counts the whole match set; hyalo terms [PREFIX] lists the stemmed dictionary.
- BM25F ranking (title, headings and tags outweigh body), a proximity bonus, accent folding, identifier splitting, did-you-mean on zero results.
- create-index is incremental and skips the write when nothing changed; an --index read repairs drifted files in memory and says so.
Breaking changes
- Snapshot format 7. Indexes written by 0.24.x are refused with a warning; rebuild with hyalo create-index.
- Ranked search results change: a b OR c now means a AND (b OR c), and scores and order differ under BM25F.
- read --lines A:B is file-relative, the same numbering find, lint and section hits print.
- A [schema] that fails to load refuses lint, find --strict and views run; an enum constraint must list its values. Under an unusable .hyalo.toml, previews (--dry-run, links fix without --apply) refuse like the write they preview.
- YAML 1.2 core integers: 1_000, 0X1F and 0b101 read as strings; 0x1F, 0o17 and 01234 are integers.
- summary.links.broken counts a bare [[alias]] link, as find --broken-links and HYALO006 already did.
Notable fixes
- links fix --apply writes heading text into wikilink anchors (Obsidian cannot resolve a slug there) and slugs into markdown links.
- --jq works when SIGINT is ignored (background jobs, nohup); 0.24.x failed every such call.
- mv rewrites bare attachment and embed links on a cross-directory move.
- A note with invalid UTF-8 no longer breaks vault-wide listings and is never rewritten.
The full changelog for this version follows.
[0.25.0] - 2026-10-05
Added
- Explicitly opt-in Jev classification in the hyalo-tidy skill for Codex,
Claude Code, and Pi. Selected documents can receive suggestions for missing
types, approved tags, and existing folders. The bundled helper uses Bun or
Node.js and a Typesafe API key; ordinary tidy needs neither. Agents review
suggestions and preview changes through Hyalo before applying them. …
| Publisher | @ractive |
|---|---|
| Author | Jean-Pierre Bergamin |
| Version | 0.25.0 |
| Release date | 2026-10-05 |
| License | MIT |
| Installer type | zip |
| Architecture | x64 |
| Package ID | ractive.hyalo |
Install hyalo from the command line with Windows Package Manager (winget):
winget install --id=ractive.hyalo -e
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